--- title: "How to Set Up a CDN" description: "A step-by-step guide to setting up a CDN: create a deployment, configure your origin, point DNS with a CNAME, set caching rules, and go live with SSL." url: https://edge.network/academy/how-to-set-up-a-cdn/ --- # How to Set Up a CDN [Back to Academy](https://edge.network/academy) Best Practices 7 min read # How to Set Up a CDN Putting a CDN in front of your site takes about five minutes: create a deployment, point it at your origin, and update one DNS record. Here's the full walkthrough. ## Before you start A CDN sits between your users and your origin server, caching content at edge locations so most requests never touch your infrastructure. To set one up you need three things: an account with a CDN provider, a domain or subdomain you want to serve through the CDN (with access to its DNS settings), and an origin — the place your content actually lives, whether that's a web server, an S3-compatible bucket, or any URL that serves your files. The steps below use [Edge CDN](https://edge.network/cdn), where the free tier covers 3 deployments and 500,000 requests a month, but the process is broadly the same on any provider. The [getting started documentation](https://edge.network/docs/cdn/getting-started) covers the same flow with screenshots. ## Step 1: Create an account and a deployment [Sign up for an account](https://edge.network/account), then navigate to **CDN** in the sidebar and click **Deploy CDN**. A deployment is a container for your CDN domains — you might have one per project or per environment. Give it a name (for example "Production") and click **Create Deployment**. ## Step 2: Add your domain and origin Click **Add Domain** and enter the domain you want to serve through the CDN — say `cdn.yoursite.com` — along with your origin URL, such as `https://origin.yoursite.com` or an S3 bucket URL. The origin is where the CDN fetches content it doesn't yet have cached. If you're hosting a static site, you can use an [Edge Storage](https://edge.network/storage) bucket as the origin type instead: upload your files, and the CDN serves them directly — including `index.html` for directory paths — with no web server to run at all. ## Step 3: Point your DNS at the CDN At your DNS provider, add a CNAME record for your subdomain pointing to `cdn.edge.network`. For `cdn.yoursite.com`, that means a CNAME with name `cdn` and target `cdn.edge.network`. For a root domain, use your DNS provider's CNAME flattening or ALIAS record support. Propagation usually takes one to five minutes. Then click **Check DNS** in the console to verify the record. If you manage your zone on [Edge DNS](https://edge.network/dns), changes propagate globally in under five seconds. ## Step 4: Wait for SSL — then you're live Once DNS is verified, a free SSL certificate is issued automatically via Let's Encrypt — typically within 30 to 60 seconds. When the status shows **SSL: active**, your domain is being served through the CDN over HTTPS. No certificate files to manage, and renewal is automatic. ## Step 5: Configure caching rules Out of the box the CDN caches sensibly, but path-based cache rules let you tune behaviour per content type: long TTLs (7–30 days) for static assets like `/assets/*`, `*.js`, and `*.css`; long TTLs with image optimisation enabled for `/images/*`; and short TTLs or a bypass for `/api/*` and personalised pages. Our [Caching Strategies](https://edge.network/academy/caching-strategies) guide covers the reasoning in depth. ## Step 6: Test, and purge when you need to Verify everything is working with a quick header check — `curl -I https://cdn.yoursite.com/path/to/file.jpg` — and look for `x-cache: HIT`, which confirms the response came from cache. When you deploy new content, use instant cache purging from the console to invalidate stale files; on Edge, purges take effect in under a second. ## What a CDN gives you from day one Once traffic flows through the CDN, these benefits apply immediately. ### Faster loads everywhere Content is served from the node nearest each user rather than from a single origin, cutting latency worldwide. ### Less origin load Cached requests never reach your server, so you can run smaller infrastructure and survive traffic spikes. ### Built-in protection DDoS mitigation and automatic SSL are included — attack traffic is absorbed at the edge before it reaches you. ### Real-time analytics Traffic, cache hit rates, and geographic distribution are visible from the console as they happen. ## Set up your CDN now Free for 3 deployments and 500k requests a month, with automatic SSL and zero egress fees. [Create a Deployment](https://edge.network/account) [Read the Docs](https://edge.network/docs/cdn/getting-started) ## Related articles [Video: CDN Setup 5 min](https://edge.network/academy/video-cdn-setup) [Caching Strategies 8 min](https://edge.network/academy/caching-strategies) [Setting up a Multi-Region CDN 10 min](https://edge.network/academy/multi-region-cdn) Coming soon ### Edge Accreditation Become a certified Edge practitioner. A structured programme covering the whole platform, with a verifiable certificate at the end. Sign up now for updates. [Learn more about accreditation](https://edge.network/accreditation)